James Bond
The James Bond series focuses on a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964 seven other authors have written authorised Bond novels or novelizations: Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks, Jeffery Deaver and William Boyd. Additionally, Charlie Higson wrote a series on a young James Bond, and Kate Westbrook wrote three novels based on the diaries of a recurring series character, Moneypenny. The fictional British Secret Service agent has also been adapted for television, radio, comic strip, video games and film. The films are the longest continually running and the second-highest grossing film series to date, which started in 1962 with Dr. No, starring Sean Connery as Bond. As of 2014, there have been twenty-three films in the Eon Productions series. The most recent Bond film, Skyfall (2012), stars Daniel Craig in his third portrayal of Bond; he is the sixth actor to play Bond in the Eon series. There have also been two independent productions of Bond films: Casino Royale (a 1967 spoof) and Never Say Never Again (a 1983 remake of an earlier Eon-produced film, Thunderball). The Bond films are renowned for a number of features, including the musical accompaniment, with the theme songs having received Academy Award nominations on several occasions, and one win. Other important elements which run through most of the films include Bond's cars, his guns, and the gadgets with which he is supplied by Q Branch. In MediaCorp Channel 5, just before the presidential elections, they had however showcased GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Flashback sequences also saw Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Roger Moore Sir Roger George Moore, KBE (/mɔər/; 14 October 1927 – 23 May 2017) was an English actor. He is best known for playing secret agent James Bond in seven feature films from 1973 to 1985. He also played Simon Templar in the television series The Saint from 1962 to 1969. Roger Moore is the first James Bond actor to pass away. Film Adaptations Their actors do include: *Sean Connery (1962 - 1967) *George Lazenby (1969) *Roger Moore (1972 - 1985) *Timothy Dalton (1985 - 1995) *Pierce Brosnan (1995 - 2002) *Daniel Craig (2006 - present), who is the modern one and is similar to Arnold Pan Wei. GoldenEye (1995) Despite the legal action, pre-production towards Bond 17 still progressed, with some early details unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival which took place in May 1990. However, delays occurred because of the ongoing legal action with MGM/UA and, in an August 1993 interview, Dalton revealed that Michael France was involved in writing a script for the next Bond film, with Anthony Hopkins as a potential villain, adding that Hopkins had been in discussions with Eon for a number of weeks. Dalton also stated that the earliest production could begin would be in January or February 1994. Dalton's six-year contract expired in 1993, and after reading France's script for what would become GoldenEye, he announced on 12 April 1994 that he would not be returning to play Bond; he was replaced by Pierce Brosnan. After Michael France delivered the original screenplay, Jeffrey Caine was brought in to rework much of the material. Kevin Wade was also brought into the process before Bruce Feirstein gave the final polish to the script. With Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson as co-producers, Albert Broccoli oversaw the production of GoldenEye as consulting producer but is credited as "presenter". John Woo was approached to direct the film, but he turned down the opportunity, saying he was honoured by the offer. The producers then chose Martin Campbell to lead the film. Principal photography started on 16 January 1995 and continued until 6 June. The producers were unable to use Pinewood Studios, the usual location for Bond films, because it had been reserved for First Knight, so an old Rolls-Royce factory at the Leavesden Aerodrome in Hertfordshire was converted into a new studio. In February the crew moved to Monaco and Monte Carlo for scenes in a casino and a demonstration of a Tiger helicopter. The pre-credits sequence involved a bungee jump, which was filmed at the Contra Dam near Locarno, Switzerland. Reference footage for a scene consisting of a tank chase was shot on location in St. Petersburg and matched to sets built at the Leavesden studio by production designer Peter Lamont. Scenes on a satellite dish were shot at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, while in the UK, Epsom Downs Racecourse and the Nene Valley Railway were both used. For the scenes of the fictional Russian location of Severnaya, and other effects, Derek Meddings built a number of miniature sets at Leavesden. Meddings had worked on the Bond films since Live and Let Die and died before the film's release; GoldenEye was dedicated to his memory. The soundtrack to GoldenEye was composed and performed by Éric Serra. Prolific Bond composer John Barry turned down an offer by Barbara Broccoli to score the film. The theme song, "GoldenEye", was written by Bono and The Edge, and was performed by Tina Turner. As Serra did not collaborate with Bono or The Edge, orchestral versions of the song did not appear throughout GoldenEye, as had been the case in previous James Bond films. GoldenEye is similar to the Woodlands MRT Extension opening. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) Before GoldenEye had been released in November 1995, MGM/UA started their preparations for Bond 18, intending for a release in early December 1997, The studio initially wanted to release the film over US Thanksgiving weekend in November 1997; when this was no longer practical, the studio sought a Christmas release. leaving Eon Productions little time for pre-production. The producers were unable to convince Martin Campbell to return; his agent said that "Martin just didn't want to do two Bond films in a row". Instead, Roger Spottiswoode was chosen in September 1996. With Peter Lamont unavailable because he was committed to Titanic, Spottiswoode chose Allan Cameron in his place to provide sets; Spottiswoode and Cameron had previously worked together on Air America. The story was based on a previously discarded treatment by Donald E. Westlake, which had been written before GoldenEye. The script was given a re-working by Bruce Feirstein, based on the return of Hong Kong to the Chinese. Feirstein's script was then contributed to by Nicholas Meyer before being reworked by Dan Petrie, Jr. and David Campbell Wilson before Feirstein, who retained the sole writing credit, was brought in for a final polish. The script was finished a week before principal photography started, although Feirstein had to re-write sequences throughout production. The process was further hampered by poor relations between Feirstein and Spottiswoode. With the Leavesden studios unavailable, and Pinewood not having sufficient capacity, Eon converted an abandoned grocery warehouse in Hertfordshire into a filming location. With the principal crew about to fly to location in Vietnam, the Vietnamese authorities revoked permission to film at the last minute, and alternative locations were quickly found in Thailand. Second unit filming began on 18 January 1997 with Vic Armstrong directing; they filmed the pre-credits sequence at Peyresourde Airport in the French Pyrenees, before moving on to Portsmouth to film the scenes where the Royal Navy prepares to engage the Chinese. The main unit began filming on 1 April 1997 at the new studios, before filming at other UK locations; production then moved to Thailand in May. Filming completed three weeks over schedule in September 1997. Eon initially approached John Barry to score the film, but the two sides could not come to terms; the producers then approached David Arnold, whom Barry endorsed. The delays in the production process and the rush to deliver the film by the MGM/UA-imposed deadline of December 1997 drove the costs upwards to $110 million, although the film recouped $338.9 million at the box office. Tomorrow Never Dies is similar to the Bukit Panjang LRT opening. The World Is Not Enough (1999) Joe Dante and then Peter Jackson were considered as directors for The World Is Not Enough. Barbara Broccoli enjoyed Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, and a screening of The Frighteners was arranged for her. She disliked the latter film, however, and showed no further interest in Jackson. Michael Apted was then selected to lead the film. Writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade were hired after their work in Plunkett & Macleane, before Michael Apted and his wife, screenwriter Dana Stevens, undertook an uncredited rewrite. Pierce Brosnan was unhappy with some of Stevens' changes to his character, so Michael G. Wilson—who was also uncredited as screenwriter—and Bruce Feirstein undertook further revisions. Production was centred at Pinewood Studios and principal photography began there on 11 January 1999 with scenes from inside the MI6 offices, designed by Peter Lamont. The pre-title sequence was shot in Bilbao, Spain, in February, with production moving to Chamonix, France, which doubled for the Caucasus scenes. The exterior of a Kazakh nuclear facility was shot at the Bardenas Reales, in Navarre, Spain, while the exterior of an oil refinery control centre was doubled by the Motorola building in Groundwell, Swindon. The exterior of the oil pipeline was filmed in Cwm Dyli, Snowdonia, Wales, while the production teams shot the oil pipeline explosion in Hankley Common, Elstead, Surrey. The production also visited Istanbul, Turkey; the scenes of villain Elektra King's Baku villa were filmed in the city, and the famous Maiden's Tower was used for the hideout of the second villain Renard. The underwater submarine scenes were filmed in the Bahamas. David Arnold returned to score the music for The World Is Not Enough—the second Bond soundtrack he composed; Garbage sang the title song. For his work on the film, Arnold won an Ivor Novello Award. The World Is Not Enough is similar to the Expo, Dover and Changi Airport MRT Stations opening. Die Another Day (2002) Lee Tamahori was hired to direct Die Another Day; Barbara Broccoli admired his film Once Were Warriors, calling it "a phenomenal piece of filmmaking". Broccoli noted that she and Wilson "sensed his genuine enthusiasm for Bond. It was simply great chemistry. Lee was the right guy and we were very, very lucky to get him". Screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade returned and began work in the summer of 2000 with the producers. They used a premise from Fleming's novel Moonraker as a basis, that of an industrialist villain who had two identities. With the planned release of the film being in the 40th anniversary year of the Bond film series, Tamahori named the Hong Kong hotel seen in the film the "Rubyeon Royale", for Eon's ruby anniversary, as well as Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale. Second unit filming started on Christmas Day 2001 with Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama and Darrick Doerner performing the surfing scene at the surf break known as Jaws in Pe ahi, Maui; the shore shots were later taken near Cádiz, Spain and Newquay, Cornwall. Principal photography of Die Another Day began on 11 January 2002 at Pinewood studios. The film was shot primarily in the United Kingdom, Iceland, and Cádiz. Filming in the UK took place at the Eden Project, the Reform Club and Pinewood Studios' 007 Stage, with the sets by production designer Peter Lamont, which included the ice palace. During June seven separate units were filming, including underwater, aerial and miniature; principal photography finished on 9 July, in time for the premiere in London on 20 November 2002. The soundtrack was composed by David Arnold, while the title song "Die Another Day" was written and performed by Madonna, who also had a cameo appearance in the film as a fencing instructor. Die Another Day had a budget of $142 million and earned $431.9 million at the box office. Die Another Day is similar to the North East Line opening, of which it is the last one to be under Pierce Brosnan. It is also similar to Windows XP. Casino Royale (2006) In 1999 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer obtained the rights to the 1967 film Casino Royale from Sony Pictures Entertainment for $10 million in the out-of-court settlement of a lawsuit. The case was brought by MGM after Sony had announced a deal with Kevin McClory to produce a third version of the Thunderball novel, for which McClory held the film rights. McClory had previously acted as producer with Eon on Thunderball and had licensed his rights for the production of Never Say Never Again in 1983. In 2004, following severe financial troubles, MGM was itself acquired by a consortium backed by Sony for $5 billion. ''Casino Royale'' reboots the series, establishing a new timeline and narrative framework not meant to precede or succeed any previous Bond film. Barbara Broccoli stated that "For years, my father wanted to make Casino Royale—it's the Holy Grail ... We wanted to make a tougher film, the way it should have been made years ago". Fellow producer Michael G. Wilson agreed, commenting "We felt the last film was too fantastical, so we decided to go back to the basics and update". Neal Purvis and Robert Wade began writing a screenplay at the end of February 2004, while Pierce Brosnan was still Bond. Paul Haggis was brought in later, and his main contribution included rewriting the climax of the film. He explained that "the draft that was there was very faithful to the book and there was a confession, so in the original draft the character confessed and killed herself. She then sent Bond to chase after the villains; Bond chased the villains into the house. I don't know why but I thought that Vesper [Lynd] had to be in the sinking house and Bond has to want to kill her and then try and save her". In February 2005 Martin Campbell was announced as the film's director and the next Bond film was revealed to be Casino Royale, although the identity of the new Bond was still unknown; the producers had chosen not to renew Pierce Brosnan's contract, and in October Eon announced that the part of Bond would be taken by Daniel Craig. Principal photography for Casino Royale commenced on 3 January 2006. The film was primarily shot at Barrandov Studios in Prague, with additional location shooting in the Bahamas, Italy and the United Kingdom. The shoot concluded at Pinewood Studios on 20 July 2006. In the Bahamas filming took place at Paradise Island and Albany House, an estate owned by golfers Ernie Els and Tiger Woods. Footage set in Mbale, Uganda, was filmed at Black Park, a Country Park in Buckinghamshire, with further UK location shooting taking place at the Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey and the Millbrook Vehicle Proving Ground in Bedfordshire. For many of the effects in the film, Special Effects and Miniature Effects Supervisor Chris Corbould used a more realistic style of film making and significantly reduced digital effects compared with previous Bond films. Corbould noted that, "CGI is a great tool and can be very useful, but I will fight to the tooth and nail to do something for real. It's the best way to go". Corbould used the 007 stage at Pinewood for the sinking of the Venetian house at the climax of the film, which featured the largest rig ever built for a Bond film. Casino Royale featured music composed by David Arnold, his fourth soundtrack for the Bond film series. Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli announced on 26 July 2006 that Chris Cornell would perform the title song, entitled "You Know My Name", which he co-wrote with Arnold. It is similar to the Circle MRT Line and Windows Vista, while it is released between 2006 and 2007. Timothy Mok had however watched in March 2007 on the Cathay Pacific and February 2007 at Ghim Moh, however it was not until 2013 then I had watched the movie on a Acer laptop. Only Angeline Wong, Teo Pei Ling, Lynette Tay, Shermaine Ong, Timothy Mok and Arnold Pan Wei had watched the film. Quantum of Solace (2008) In July 2006, as Casino Royale entered post-production, Eon Productions announced that the next film would be based on an original idea by producer Michael G. Wilson. In June 2007 Marc Forster was confirmed as director. He was surprised that he was approached for the job, stating he was not a big Bond film fan through the years, and that he would not have accepted the project had he not seen Casino Royale prior to making his decision: he felt Bond had been humanised in that film, arguing that because travelling the world had become less exotic since the series' advent, it made sense to focus more on Bond as a character. Forster found Casino Royale s 144-minute running time too long, and wanted his follow-up to be "tight and fast ... like a bullet". Neal Purvis and Robert Wade returned as screenwriters and completed a draft of the script by April 2007; Paul Haggis also worked on the script, completing it two hours before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike officially began. Further work on the script had to be undertaken by Forster and Daniel Craig, who said later, "We had the bare bones of a script and then there was a writers' strike and there was nothing we could do. We couldn't employ a writer to finish it. I say to myself, 'Never again', but who knows? There was me trying to rewrite scenes – and a writer I am not". Craig also admitted that the film was not initially meant to be a sequel, but it became one because of the re-writes undertaken by him and Forster. Haggis located his draft's climax in the Swiss Alps, but Forster wanted the action sequences to allude to the four classical elements of earth, water, air and fire. Michael G. Wilson decided on the film's title Quantum of Solace only "a few days" before its announcement on 24 January 2008. Forster hired Dennis Gassner as production designer, replacing Peter Lamont. Quantum of Solace was shot in six countries, including Italy (Talamone and Siena), Chile (the Paranal Observatory), Austria (Bregenz), Mexico, Panama and the UK. In the UK interior and exterior airport scenes were filmed at Farnborough Airfield and the snowy closing scenes were filmed at the Bruneval Barracks in Aldershot, as well as ten stages at Pinewood and two theatres for ADR work. David Arnold, who composed the scores for the previous four Bond films, returned for Quantum of Solace. He said that Forster likes to work very closely with his composers and that, in comparison to the accelerated schedule he was tied to on Casino Royale, the intention was to spend a long time scoring the film to "really work it out". He also said he would be "taking a different approach" with the score. Jack White of The White Stripes and Alicia Keys collaborated on "Another Way to Die", the first Bond music duet. It is similar to Windows 7 and Downtown Line, while it is released in between 2008 and 2009. Only Angeline Wong, Teo Pei Ling, Lynette Tay, Tse Mun Hoi, Poh Jing Xiang, Shermaine Ong, Timothy Mok and Arnold Pan Wei had watched the film. Skyfall (2012) The production of Skyfall was suspended throughout 2010 because of MGM's financial troubles. Eon resumed pre-production following MGM's exit from bankruptcy on 21 December 2010 and in January 2011 the film was given official approval, with production scheduled to start in late 2011. The film's budget is estimated to be between $150 million and $200 million, compared to the $200 million spent on Quantum of Solace. Skyfall was directed by Sam Mendes, who first signed on to the project shortly after Quantum of Solace was released, and remained on board as a consultant during the period of uncertainty surrounding MGM's financial situation. Speculation in the media suggested that Mendes had commissioned rewrites of the script to "remove action scenes in favour of 'characterful performances'", with the intention of bidding for an Academy Award. Mendes denied the reports, stating that the film's planned action scenes were an important part of the overall film. The script was written by Bond screenwriting regulars Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, as well as John Logan. Roger Deakins signed on as cinematographer, while Dennis Gassner returned as production designer. Thomas Newman, who worked with Sam Mendes as composer for American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead and Revolutionary Road, replaced David Arnold as composer; British singer-songwriter Adele co-wrote and recorded the film's theme song with her regular songwriter, Paul Epworth. Principal photography was scheduled to take 133 days and began on 7 November 2011 in and around London. Production moved to Turkey in April 2012, with parts of Istanbul—including the Spice Bazaar, Yeni Camii, the Main Post Office, Sultanahmet Square and the Grand Bazaar—closed for filming in April. Filming also took place in Shanghai. Although set in Scotland, Bond's family home of Skyfall was constructed on Hankley Common in Surrey using plywood and plaster to build a full-scale model of the building, with some exterior scenes shot in Glen Etive and Glencoe. It is similar to Windows 8, 8.1 and Thomson-East Coast Line. Spectre (2015) In September 2012 it was announced that Daniel Craig had signed to the role of Bond for the following two films, the first of which was Spectre, funded by MGM and Sony. In March 2013 Mendes announced he would not return to direct the next film in the series, although he later decided to return. In July 2013 it was revealed that John Logan would also return as writer, while in October 2014 it was announced that Léa Seydoux would play a Bond girl in the film. Filming started in December 2014 and the film was released into cinemas on 26 October 2015. It is similar to Windows 10, while it is released to culminate SG50. Bond 25 A sequel to Spectre began development in early 2016. Mendes has stated he would not be directing. Since Sony Pictures's contract to co-produce the series with MGM and Eon expired with the release of Spectre, another major film studio may land the distribution rights to release Bond 25 in cinemas. Four major studios – Warner Bros., Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox and Sony itself – along with Annapurna Pictures are vying to win the rights to the next film – MGM and Eon are only offering a one-film contract. Filming locations *Bangkok: The Man with the Golden Gun, Tomorrow Never Dies *Phuket: Tomorrow Never Dies *Tokyo: You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever References